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AN  AMERICAN  UNIVERSITY, 


[From  the  Records  of  the  National  Teachers'  Association.^ 


At  the  conclusion  of  an  address  on  "  The 
Progress  of  University  Education,"  delivered  by 
Dr.  J.  W.  Hoyt,  of  Wisconsin,  before  the  Na- 
tional Teachers'  Association,  at  Trenton,  New 
Jersey,  on  the  20th  of  August,  1869,  the  follow- 
ing resolution,  offered  by  Professor  A.  J.  Eickoff, 
of  Ohio,  was  unanimously  adopted,  to  wit: 

Resolvedy  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Association, 
a  great  American  University  is  a  leading  want  of 
American  education,  and  that,  in  order  to  contribute 
to  the  early  establishment  of  such  an  institution,  the 
President  of  this  Association,  acting  in  concert  with 
the  President  of  the  IS'ational  Superintendents'  Asso- 
ciation, is  hereby  requested  to  appoint  a  committee 
consisting  of  one  member  from  each  of  the  States,  and 
of  which   Dr.  J.  W.  Hoyt,    of  Wisconsin,  shall  be 


36292a 


^  \aA 

'•■  -•    ■■  ..     ...-■  .xJ2> 

2    .  ^^  American  University. 

cliairman,  to  take  the  whole  matter  under  consider- 
ation, and  to  make  such  report  thereon,  at  the  next 
Annual  Convention  of  said  Associations,  as  shall  seem 
to  be  demanded  by  the  interests  of  the  country. 

A  committee  was  appointed  in  accordance 
with  the  resolution,  consisting  of  the  following 
gentlemen : 

Dr.  J.  W.  Hoyt,  Chairman,  Madison,  Wis- 
consin. 

Hon.  N.  B.  Cloud,  Montgomery,  Alabama. 
Hon.  Thomas  Smith,  Little  Rock,  Arkansas. 
Prof.  W.  P.  Blake,  San  Francisco,  California. 
Hon.  B.  G.  Northrup,  New  Haven,  Conn. 
Prof.  L.  Coleman,  Wilmington,  Delaware. 
Hon.  C.  T.  Chase,  Tallahasse,  Florida. 
Hon.  ]S"ewton  Bateman,  Springfield,  Illinois. 
Hon.  B.  C.  Hobbs,  Indianapolis,  Indiana. 
Hon.  A.  S.  Kissel,  Des  Moines,  Iowa. 
Hon.  P.  McVickar,  Topeka,  Kansas. 
Hon.  Z.  T.  Smith,  Frankfort,  Kentucky. 
Hon.  T.  W.  Conway,  New  Orleans,  Louisiana. 
Hon.  Warren  Johnson,  Augusta,  Maine. 
Hon.  M.  A.  Newell,  Baltimore,  Maryland. 
Hon.  Joseph  White,  Boston,  Massachusetts. 
Hon.  O.  Hosford,  Lansing,  Michigan. 


University   Committee.  3 

Prof.  W.  F.  Phelps,  Winona,  Minnesota. 

Dr.  Daniel  Read,  Columbia,  Missouri. 

Prof.  J.  M.  McKinsey,  Peru,  ISTebraska. 

Hon.  A.  N.  Fisher,  Carson  City,  Nevada. 

Hon.  Amos  Hardy,  Concord,  New  Hampshire. 

Hon.  C.  A.  Apgar,  Trenton,  New  Jersey. 

Hon.  J.  W.  Bulkley,  Brooklyn,  New  York. 

Hon.  S.  S.  Ashley,  Ealeigh,  North  Carolina. 
1    Prof.  A.  J.  Rickoff,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Rev.  Geo.  H.  Atkinson,  Portland,  Oregon. 

Hon.  J.  P.  Wickersham,  Harris  burg,  Penn.- 

Hon.  T.  W.  Bicknell,  Providence,  R.  I. 

Hon.  J.  K.  Jillson,  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 

Rev.  C,  T.  P.  Bancroft,  Lookout  Mountain, 
Tennessee. 

Hon.  J.  S.  Adams,  Montpelier,  Vermont. 

Hon.  Wm.  H.  Ruffin,  Richmond,  Virginia. 

Prof  Z.  Richards,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Nevertheless,  in  consequence  of  some  over- 
sight, official  notice  of  the  appointments  did  not 
reach  the  chairman  of  the  committee  until  so 
near  1  he  date  of  the  succeeding  Convention  that 
a  general  correspondence  with  the  members 
thereof  was  found  impracticable.  Accordingly, 
it  was  yery  properly  resolved  by  the  committee 


4:  An  American  University. 

to  make  a  preliminary  report  only  at  tlie  Cleve- 
land Convention,  and  leave  it  to  the  Association 
to  determine  whether  they  should  continue  their 
labors. 

Pursuant  to  this  decision,  the  chairman  of  the 
committee,  on  the  17th  of  August,  1870,  sub- 
mitted the  following  preliminary  report : 


PEELIMINARY  KEPOET. 


iNTotwithstanding  the  many  and  various  uses  hereto- 
fore made  of  the  term  university^  it  may  be  assumed, 
without  fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  the  lead- 
ing offices  of  a  true  university  are  these : 

1.  To  provide  the  best  possible  facilities  for  the 
highest  and  most  profound  culture  in  every  depart- 
ment of  learning. 

2.  To  provide  the  means  of  a  thorough  preparation 
for  all  such  pursuits  in  life  as,  being  based  upon  estab- 
lished scientific  and  philosophic  principles,  are  entitled 
to  rank  as  professions. 

3.  To  exert  a  stimulating  and  elevating  influence 
upon  every  subordinate  class  and  grade  of  educational 
institutions,  by  holding  up  before  the  multitude  of  their 
pupils  the  standards  of  the  highest  scholarship,  and 
by  preparing  for  their  administrative  and  instructional 
work  officers  and  teachers  of  a  higher  grade  of  quali- 
fications than  would  be  otherwise  possible. 

4.  To  enlarge  the  boundaries  of  human  knowledge, 
by  means  of  the  researches  and  investigations  of  its 
professors,  as  well  as  by  the  researches  and  investi- 
gations  of  other   advanced  minds,  encouraged  to  a 


6  An  American  Uni/versit/y, 

greater  activity  and  led  to  greater  achievements  by 
tlie  influence  of  the  university  example. 

In  so  far  as  any  institution,  whatever  its  name  or 
fame,  fails  in  the  fulfilhnent  of  this  general  mission, 
by  so  much  does  it  fall  short  of  the  standard  of  a  true 
university. 

That  these  several  offices  of  the  university  are  of 
vast  importance  is- so  apparent  as  not  to  require  dem- 
onstration. Ko  people  can  justly  claim  to  be  in  the 
highest  sense  civilized  whose  aspiring  youth  are 
compelled  to  turn  their  backs  upon  the  best-furnished 
schools  of  their  own  country,  because  they  fail  to  pro- 
vide the  facilities  elsewhere  provided,  and  requisite  to 
a  mastery  of  important  branches  of  study.  JS^o  gov- 
ernment is  faithful  to  the  interests  of  the  people  that 
does  not,  in  some  way,  secure  to  them  equal,  and  the 
best  possible,  advantages  for  gaining  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  the  principles  that  underlie  the  several  lead- 
ing pursuits  in  life.  Ko  nation  can  possibly  maintain 
a  system  of  popular  education  worthy  of  a  great  and 
free  people  which  does  not  place  at  its  head  an  insti- 
tution or  class  of  institutions  potent  enough,  by  virtue 
of  its  own  exalted  character,  to  exert  a  controlling  and 
elevating  influence  upon  the  whole  series  of  schools  of 
inferior  rank.  ]^o  people  of  intellectual  energy  and 
genius  may  hope  for  the  approval  of  God  and  the 
enlightened  portion  of  mankind  which  does  not  make 
its  full  contribution  to  the  advancement  of  knowledge. 

If  these  several  declarations  as  to  the  mission  of  the 


Preliminary  Rejpm't,  T 

university,  and  the  importance  of  that  mission,  be 
true,  then  it  is  a  logical  conclusion  that  no  competent 
nation  may  stand  acquitted  before  its  own  conscience 
and  the  enlightened  judgment  of  the  world  until  it 
can  point  to  one  such  center  of  original  investigation 
and  educational  power. 

It  is  not  deemed  necessary,  in  this  connection,  by  a 
presentation  of  facts  so  abundant  on  every  hand,  to 
make  proof  of  the  absolutely  deplorable  condition  of 
higher  education  everywhere  in  the  ISTew  World,  and 
that  we  have,  as  yet,  no  near  approach  to  a  university 
in  America — a  statement  which  no  well-informed  citi- 
zen will  venture  to  deny — a  fact  freely  acknowledged 
and  bewailed  by  the  responsible  heads  of  the  very 
highest  of  all  our  higher  institutions. 

Nor  do  your  committee  deem  it  important  to  show 
the  relative  inferiority  of  our  foremost  institutions  by 
mortifying  comparisons  of  them  with  those  intellectual 
centers,  the  universities  of  Paris,  Turin,  Vienna  and 
Berlin, — themselves  still  incomplete  in  that  they  simply 
include  the  old  faculties,  regardless  of  the  equal  claims 
of  the  new  professions, — each  with  its  grand  cluster  of 
some  two  hundred  professors,  of  whom  many  are  the 
ablest  and  most  brilliant  men  of  the  age,  and  each 
provided,  moreover,  with  an  array  of  libraries,  cabi- 
nets, museums,  laboratories,  and  other  auxiliaries,  of 
the  vastness  and  richness  of  which  the  struggling  stu- 
dent in  the  American  college  can  have  but  little  con- 


8  An  American  Unwersit/y. 

ception.  Facts  upon  which  such  comparisons  might 
be  based  have  long  been  before  the  country.  It  will 
soon  come  to  be  known  to  our  people,  and  the  sooner 
the  better,  that  in  respect  of  higher  education  we  are 
about  the  lowest  in  the  scale  of  the  nations  making 
any  pretensions  to  civilization. 

Surely  further  evidence  is  not  needed  of  our  serious, 
and  we  may  add  shameful,  deficiency  in  this  regard. 

If  it  be  asked  whether  the  conditions  necessary  to 
the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  a  true  univer- 
sity are  found  in  this  country,  our  reply  is.  Where 
else  on  the  earth  do  they  exist,  if  not  here  ?  jS'ot  in 
the  Old  World,  certainly,  where  the  existing  univer- 
sities, founded,  many  of  them,  during  the  Dark  Ages, 
and  all  of  them  more  or  less  in  the  interest  of  class, 
would  be  reformed  with  great  difficulty,  and  only  after 
changes  should  first  have  been  wrought  in  the  civil 
institutions  and  in  the  very  constitution  of  society 
itself.  But  here  in  America,  where  only  in  all  the 
world  just  ideas  of  fraternity  and  equality  have  place 
and  are  kindly  cherished;  where  the  elements  of 
society  and  of  all  classes  of  institutions  are  yet  plastic ; 
where  there  are  no  crystalized,  much  less  fossilized, 
educational  systems  to  be  overturned  and  got  rid  of; 
where,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  an  open  field  and  a 
hopeful  groping  for  the  right  way ;  nay,  more,  where 
individual  philanthropists  and  both  State  and  l!^ational 
Governments  are  ready  with  vast  resources,  growing 


Preliminary  Report.  9 

vaster  every  day,  to  join  in  the  work  of  laying  its  deep 
and  broad  foundations,  what  hinders  that  here  we 
begin  at  once  the  upbuilding  of  a  university  commen- 
surate with  the  greatness  of  our  country  and  the  needs 
of  the  times  ? 

In  the  early  history  of  America,  the  circumstances 
were  a  sufficient  excuse  for  low.  standards  of  general 
and  professional  education.  But  the  period  of  infancy 
and  poverty  has  been  passed.  "We  are  at  this  moment 
a  rich  and  powerful  nation.  Moreover,  the  opinion  is 
coming  to  be  universal  that  this  is  a  nation  of  great 
destinies.  And  who  that  looks  at  the  democratic 
character  of  our  institutions,  reared  as  a  sublime  ex- 
ample in  the  face  of  all  the  doubting  and  jealous 
nations  of  the  world ;  at  the  strange  heterogeneousness 
of  a  population  gathered  from  every  clime  under 
heaven,  speaking  in  all  the  babbling  tongues  of  earth, 
bound  together  by  no  common  bond  of  historic  associ- 
ations, and  cherishing  the  most  diverse  and  conflicting 
views  of  social,  religious  and  political  institutions ;  at 
the  undeveloped  resources  of  a  territory  already  vast, 
and  yet  increasing  with  a  rapidity  that  promises, 
within  the  lifetime  of  the  coming  generation,  to  em- 
brace the  entire  continent ;  at  the  unparalled  activity 
and  resistless  energy  of  this  wonderful  mosaic  of 
peoples,  destined,  ere  the  close  of  this  century,  to 
number  one  hundred  millions ; — who  that  looks  at  all 
these  conditions  of  national  life  can  resist  the  convio- 


10  An  American  Ohiversity. 

tion  that  we  have  indeed  a  sublime  mission  to  ftdfill, 
and  that  we  have  need  even  now  of  a  keener  and  more 
far-seeing  intelligence ;  of  a  profounder  knowledge  of 
the  sciences,  material,  intellectual,  social  and  political ; 
of  a  more  substantial,  all-pervading  virtue ;  in  short, 
of  a  deeper,  higher,  and  more  comprehensive  culture 
than  the  world  has  hitherto  seen,  or  even  recognized 
as  essential  to  any  of  the  other  great  nations,  past  or 
present  ? 

Language  is  powerless  to  convey  an  adequate  idea 
of  the  rapidity  with  which  the  thoughts,  tendencies 
and  purposes  of  the  American  people  are  all  the  while 
forming,  changing  and  shifting,  to  adapt  themselves 
to  new  exigencies.  The  very  elements,  social  and 
political,  are  in  a  ceaseless  ferment.  Circumstances 
and  conditions  which  the  most  sagacious  fail  to  antici- 
pate are  daily  arising  to  test  the  intellectual  power 
and  conscience  of  the  nation.  "We  repeat  it,  no  nation 
had  ever  such  need  of  disciplined  mind  to  lead  in  the 
development  of  its  resources  and  guide  its  intellectual 
energies ;  none  such  need  of  moral  power  to  correct 
its  necessarily  strong  material  tendencies,  and  steadily 
hold  it  up  to  a  noble  and  lofty  ideal. 

If,  therefore,  it  is  in  truth,  as  we  have  assumed,  one 
important  office  of  the  university  to  supply  such  dis- 
cipline and  such  correcting  and  elevating  power,  what 
stronger  argument  could  be  framed  for  the  founding 
and  liberal  sustaining  of  one  such  institution  in  this 


Preliminary  Heport,  11 

country,  high  enough  in  range  to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  most  exalted  ambition,  and  broad  enough  to 
answer  the  needs  of  every  profession  ? 

"We  could  hardly  hope  for  more  than  one,  at  least 
for  a  long  time  to  come,  for  it  must  needs  be  supplied 
with  a  multitude  of  able  professors,  covering  not  only 
the  whole  range  of  letters,  pure  science  and  philos- 
ophy, together  with  the  several  fields  of  the  time- 
honored  professions,  but  also  the  yet  more  numerous 
and,  for  a  time,  more  difficult  ones  of  the  new  profes- 
sions ;  a  great  and  choice  library,  such  as  this  country 
does  not  yet  possess ;  and  a  large  number  ^>f  thoroughly 
furnished  laboratories,  museums  and  other  costly  sci- 
entific establishments.  But  then  one  such  university 
in  America  would  at  once  become  a  power,  influential 
alike  in  furthering  and  directing  our  material  develop- 
ment, in  elevating  the  character  of  the  lower  educa- 
tional institutions  of  the  country,  and  in  awakening 
and  sustaining  higher  conceptions  of  both  individual 
and  national  culture;  thus  helping  us,  by  a  happy 
combination  of  our  own  more  than  Roman  energy  and 
religious  faith  with  the  grace  and  refinement  of  the 
Greek  civilization,  to  become  a  nation  fully  worthy  of 
the  future  that  awaits  us. 

It  would  do  more,  vastly  more  than  this.  It  would 
supply  to  all  lands  a  most  important  need  of  the  times — 
a  university  placed  under  the  benign  influence  of  free 
civil  and  religious  institutions,  and  sublimely  dedicated 


12  An  American  University, 

to  tlie  diffusion  and  advancement  of  all  knowledge. 
Students  of  high  aspirations,  and  even  ripe  scholars  of 
genius,  would  eventually  flock  to  its  halls  from  every 
quarter  of  the  globe,  adding  to  the  intellectual  wealth 
of  the  nation  should  they  remain,  or  bearing  with 
them  scions  from  the  tree  of  liberty  for  planting  in 
their  native  lands.  And  thus  America,  already  the 
most  marvelous  theater  of  material  activities,  would 
early  become  the  world's  recognized  center  of  intellec- 
tual culture  as  well  as  of  moral  and  political  power. 

It  is  not  assumed  that  this  ideal  is  capable  of  reali- 
zation in  a  single  year,  nor  in  ten  years ;  for,  if  the 
pecuniary  means  were  at  hand,  the  maturing  of  wise 
plans,  the  preparation  of  teachers  through  protracted 
foreign  study,  and  the  labor  of  organization  and  mate- 
rial establishment  would  require  at  least  one  decade. 
It  would  be  a  glorious  consummation  if  on  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  our  national  independence 
it  should  be  even  permitted  us  to  announce  to  the 
wgrld  that  the  first  great  steps  insuring  the  early  estab- 
lishment of  the  long-hoped-for  American  University 
had  already  been  taken.  The  ideal  here  presented  in 
rude  outline,  or  some  other  more  perfect  ideal,  in 
capable  of  realization ;  and,  in  the  things  of  intellec- 
tual culture  and  social  advancement,  whatsoever  is 
possible,  that  it  is  the  moral  duty  of  the  individual, 
society,  or  the  Government,  or  these  several  forces 
combined,  to  imdertake. 


Preliminary  Rejport,  13 

"Whether  the  institution  contemplated  should  be  an 
entirely  new  one,  founded  in  a  new  place,  or  whether 
some  one  of  the  few  institutions  that  have  already 
made  such  noble  beginnings  of  high  educational  work 
should  rather  be  made  the  nucleus  around  which  the 
earnest  friends  of  universit/education  of  every  section 
should  rally  for  its  upbuilding ;  whether  it  should  be 
what  the  Italians  mean  by  2^  free  university,  or  whether 
the  Government,  State  or  National,  should  have  part 
in  its  management — these  are  questions  upon  which 
there -must  necessarily  be  differences  of  opinion. 

,  But  be  the  diversity  of  views  as  to  the  precise  char- 
acter of  the  institution,  the  place  of  its  location,  and 
the  mode  of  its  constitution  and  government,  what  it 
may,  upon  the  primary  question  of  whether  we  will 
have  a  university  in  America  somewhere^  and  at  the 
earhest  possible  day,  there  should  be  no  difference  of 
opinion. 

There  is  one  other  question,  moreover,  that  may  be 
settled  now.  It  may  be  safely  assumed  in  advance, 
that  the  founding  and  endowing  of  the  institution  is  a 
work  in  which  it  will  be  necessary  for  the  citizen,  the 
State  and  the  General  Government  to  unite ;  for  it 
will  cost  millions  of  money,  and  require  the  careful 
guidance  of  the  wisest  scholars  and  statesmen  the  land 
can  afford.  And  who  doubts  that  all  these  forces — 
tlie  people,  the  State,  and  tlie  IN'ational  Government — 
will  respond  if  the  scholars,  the  active  laborers  in  the 


14:  An  American  University. 

cause  of  education,  and  the  leading  statesmen  of  the 
country,  with  one  voice  demand  it  ? 

When,  a  few  years  since,  the  men  of  worJc  asked 
help  of  the  nation  for  the  endowment  of  schools  for 
the  benefit  of  agriculture  and  the  mechanic  arts,  the 
Government,  with  a  liberal  hand,  gave  for  this  noble 
object  ten  million  acres  of  the  public  domain,  to  which 
the  individual  States  and  great-hearted  men  have 
added  no  less  liberal  means.  How  much  more  then, 
proportionally,  will  our  statesmen  in  council  and  lib- 
eral patriots  yield  for  the  foundation  and  maintenance 
of  one  great  central  institution,  to  be  established  in  the 
interest  of  every  profession  and  all  classes  of  schools, 
of  a  profound  and  universal  culture,  of  a  more  perfect 
intellectual  and  social  development  of  the  whole  body 
of  the  nation,  in  the  interest  of  liberty  and  universal 
man! 

In  the  opinion  of  your  committee,  the  attention  of 
the  Association  has  not  been  called  to  this  subject  a 
moment  too  soon.  The  trial  of  its  political  institutions 
through  which  the  American  nation  has  just  passed ; 
the  manner  in  which  the  necessity  for  education,  as 
the  only  guarantee  for  the  perpetuity  of  those  institu- 
tions, has  just  been  burned  into  the  national  conscious- 
ness ;  the  pressing  demand  made  by  our  material  and 
and  social  condition  for  the  best  educational  facilities 
the  world  can  furnish ;  and  the  fast  accumulating  evi- 
dence that  America  is  surely  destined  to  a  glorious 


Preliminary  Report,  15 

leadership  in  the  grand  march  of  the  nations — all 
these  constitute  an  appeal  to  action  which  it  were 
criminal  to  disregard.  The  necessity  is  great.  The 
country  and  the  times  are  ripe  for  the  undertaking. 

The  questions  that  remain  for  our  discussion  relate 
to  the  very  important  subject  of  definite  ways  and 
means.  For  the  proper  consideration  and  satisfactory 
solution  of  these,  your  committee  have  found  it  neces- 
sary to  pray  for  an  extension  of  the  time  allotted 
them. 

Kespectfully  submitted. 

J.  W.  HOYT,  Chairman. 


In  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  com- 
mittee, further  time  was  granted,  in  the  hope 
that  at  the  next  Annual  Convention  they  will  be 
enabled  to  submit  a  plan  for  an  organized  move- 
ment looking  to  the  early  establishment  of  some 
such  institution  as  the  one  foreshadowed  in  their 
preliminary  report. 


Tms  BOOK  IS  DTJE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
THIS  B00B^3l»^^n.EP  BELOW 

AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

THIS  BOOK  ON  ^HE  DATE  DU  ^RTH 

OVERDUE. 


OCT  10  1936 


Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

P«r.i/UI.2I   .I90S 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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